He predicted Syrians coming to Canada will include significant numbers of Christians living in Lebanon or Jordan but outside refugee camps, acknowledging concerns that Christians avoid the camps.

The refugees will arrive mainly via commercial flights, but military planes are also on standby if needed.

They’ll initially land in Toronto or Montreal before going to various cities across the country.

Up to 3,500 of the Syrian refugees are expected to come to B.C., with many of them settling in Metro Vancouver.

“If they are transferred to Vancouver, they could end up in Surrey,” McCallum said.

He added Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps is “very keen to receive refugees, not just for Victoria but for other places on Vancouver Island.”

McCallum said his vision is to distribute refugees relatively evenly across the country, if possible.

Although the government won’t have control over where refugees ultimately stay, it will avoid sending one family by itself to a community, instead dispatching them in clusters of perhaps 10 if there are no existing family links.

“So they will have some people in their own community as they go to this new place,” McCallum explained.

He said “many” privately sponsored Syrian refugees could also come to Canada in 2016 over and above the federal target of 25,000 primarily government-sponsored refugees.

“I would not be surprised if that number was large,” he said, crediting tremendous interest by Canadians to help.

B.C. Finance Minister Mike de Jong said Tuesday the costs to B.C. of refugee resettlement are primarily a federal responsibility, but the province has added $1 million to the $4 million it spends annually to support the federal immigrant resettlement program. He also expects significant costs to the B.C. school system.

“There are going to be, we’re told, a lot of children,” de Jong said. “A lot of traumatized children.”